Pompeii 42" - Videos of Construction and Cooking

[tmjporter]

I've put some photos of my most recent build here and a few video of recent use on my YouTube Channel.

[Dr.Lee]

Very professional build. I have a million questions as I get ready to build but right now I'll ask questions only pertaining to wood shims. Did you get shims from a store or make them? If you cut your own how long were they and what was their angle? How long do you wait to remove shims and replace the gap with mortar?

[UtahBeehiver]

Dr. Lee,

A good place to start is by downloading the e-plans from Forno Bravo, they are only a few bucks and will answer a lot of basic questions. Somewhat dated, there have been a number of improvements to construction of WFOs by members on this blog. Also look in the newbie section under Treasure Archives, there will be a stickie linking some of the more documented builds over the past few years. The wedges you see in the dome appear to be fire brick cutoffs. IMHO, you do not need these if you correctly use an IT (indespensible tool - do a search on blog) and the right consistency of mortar. Start with the plans, link and peruse the forum for your design. Our goal is to make all builder successful in the WFO build.

[tmjporter]

Hi Dr. Lee,

Totally agree with a Utah on the utility of the forum. I started my 36” knowing zero about brick ovens but read the instructional doc and read the forum as much as I could. People here are very helpful.

I believe the shims for the first oven are door shims put together at the right angle. This time around for the 42 I used brick chips.

All the best in your build.

Trevor

[Dr.Lee]

I have had the Forno plans for a while and have been reading through them and reading postings. I'm also familiar with the IT tool. Utah Beehiver pointed out improvements to the original plan. Is there an organized list of tweaks or is it hit and miss to find the variations others have done? I have two others questions at the moment to help me wrap my head around this project. I am going go with a 42" project. At what point going up will I have to start cutting bricks as opposed to full bricks? Additionally, I am a hobbyist woodworker. So I tend to think that being 1/8" off is a failure on my part. Because of the use of mortar this project seems to be more forgiving. Is this correct?
Trevor - My wife and I have tent camped through NFLD - one of our best experiences ever.
Thanks to all,
Lee

[UtahBeehiver]

At one time several of us tried to update the FB plans but the person at FB is no longer there and that project died on the vine. There is a thread call something like, "what would I do different" that has a lot of good suggestions but other than that not much in the way of a central repository for improvements. Mortar is your friend, you strive for tight inside joints but use mortar to fill in the wider back side joints. You will probably be good for at least a couple course before any side cuts are required and then only bevels are need to minimize what is called "inverted V" joints. Since you are a woodworker, I did a compound bevel/taper(angle) cut and have really tight "full" side joints (it is a huge time and labor intensive process). If I build another oven I would only do a bevel cut near the ID of the dome for tight inside seams and mortar up the back side (JRPizza did this) Think twice about a 42" oven, that is what I have and unless you are planning on lots of large parties or doing a lot extended cooking I would consider a smaller size. It is not worth it for me to fire my oven up for a couple pizzas and only gets fired up for large parties.

[Dr.Lee]

This helps. Thanks. I keep going back and forth between 36" and 42". Maybe I would use a smaller oven more frequently.

[UtahBeehiver]

It can be anywhere in between as well, several builders have gone with 39" or roughly 1 meter.

[JRPizza]

I opted for a 39"er. The numbers work out well for building a hemispherical arch (easy to hit ideal door height) and with the ~48" diameter of the dome bricks you can get away with less insulation boards than a 42". My boards were 1' by 3' so hitting 48 on the nose was easy!

[Dr.Lee]

When you refer to insulation boards - do you mean the ceramic fiber boards?

[tmjporter]

Dr. Lee,

I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed your time in NL! Tenting is good for about 2 months a year :-)

Yes, I was referring to fibre board which i used under this oven. I used vermiculite and concrete last time around. As for size, we are a family of 5 and like to entertain. We never heat up the oven for a couple of pizzas but spend lots of weekends making pizza with company, then roasting meat & veggies and whatever else we can think of. The two things I'm hope to try soon are suckling pig and seal flipper - I'll post videos of both! Our last oven was 36" and i found it a little small, even for baking a number of loaves of bread at once. This one is nice and roomy but, again, to each his own - it depends on your lifestyle and preferences. I figure it takes hours to heat up so it may as well be large enough!

All the best in your build. I'm a little slow on the forum response but if you email tmjporter@gmail.com, I'll respond more quickly. Lots of really good resources here.